Nearly three million EU workers cannot afford to heat their homes amid a rise in energy prices. According to the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), 15% of the EU’s working poor do not have enough money to turn on the heating. This amounts to 2,713,578 people. Trade unions are calling on the European Parliament to insulate workers against energy poverty by introducing a ‘threshold of decency’ into the draft EU Directive on Minimum Wages which would ensure that statutory minimum wages guarantee a decent standard of living and could never be paid at less than 60% of the median wage and 50% of the average wage of any Member State.
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For more information, please contact Paul de Beer or Oana Ciuca, De Burcht (Scientific Bureau for the Dutch Trade Union Movement) p.t.debeer@uva.nl or the Head of communications at the ETUI, Mehmet Koksal mkoksal@etui.org. For previous full issues of the Collective bargaining newsletter please visit https://www.etui.org/Newsletters/Collective-bargaining-newsletter or consult the archive with all articles in our database at www.cbnarchive.eu.
You may find further information on the ETUI at www.etui.org.